Hanssens Violin Concerto (1836), etc.

[Alan Howe]

...on a CD forthcoming from Phaedra and including a plethora of enticing short pieces:
https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/products/8395685--in-flanders-fields-vol-96-where-are-the-snows-of-yesterday

Incidentally, Toskey lists two VCs by Hanssens, No.1 in D and No.2 in A, so it's not clear which work is featured here.

[eschiss1]

No.1 in D has been uploaded to YouTube, I think, and has 3 movements (Allegro non troppo, Andantino, Allegretto). The cello and bass parts, though not -yet- anything else, are @ IMSLP.  No.1 is ca.1825 according to the source of the parts, but that may not be the scholarly consensus. Will see if CeBeDeM has a list, or something...

Don't know No.2 in A.

[eschiss1]

that said, I think Bärwolf's substantial if early Hanssens bio (1894) only lists one violin concerto (lots of other concertos, 5 symphonies, ... ...). Let me doublecheck, it's Google Books

And indeed: Concerto in D, composed 1836 in Paris, reduction made by (the biographer) Bärwolf.  (From the biography in question, p.292.)

[eschiss1]

Ok, forget those last things I just wrote. Gah. There is a 2nd concerto, don't know why he says there's only one on one page. In his chronological list, @ 1869, 2nd concerto en la. (page 300.) (Edit: no.2 begun but not finished in 1839, "refait" in 1869 October...)

But yes, the 1836 one is the D major #1 that has been uploaded back when to the "Belgian music" folder or more recently to our Downloads folder, I forget. Anyhow. Sorry, sorry...!!

(Lots of other works of his- 5-odd symphonies, a dozen other concertos, string quartets, cantatas, etc.- listed in that biography, mostly only in manuscript at the Belgian Royal Library if anywhere at all, but at least quite a few of them are in surviving ms which is generally better than nothing, and a few were published.)

[Alan Howe]

Indeed, this is the VC in D major. And an excellent work it is too - a true, early romantic concerto, in three linked movements and with not a whiff of the routine about it. You can hear Vieuxtemps in the near-distance...

[eschiss1]

Wasn't there a radio recording of this work on YouTube a while back? (I recall enjoying that ) Anyhow, glad there's a good widely available well-distributed one; I will try to get a listen.  (His other works sound intriguing too, maybe some of them will be along sometime.)